Short Biography

I am an Urban Geographer working at the department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies of the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Much of my inspiration comes from my own observations and experiences in Amsterdam, the city where I was born and raised, and from exploring other cities in person and in the mind. I always try to incorporate these 'everyday' observations into my teaching and research.

As researcher, I am affiliated to the Center for Urban Studies and the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research. Broadly speaking, I am interested in the geography of everyday life in cities and the ways in which the lives of residents are affected by - and also contribute to - macro-processes of polarization, segregation and fragmentation of urban space. I have studied the different ways in which neighborhoods form meaningful places for residents (or not), exploring place-based processes of in- and exclusion, belonging and disaffiliation, place-making and place-claiming. Much of my research has focused on areas of concentrated poverty and I am currently developing new research plans to study urban marginality and territorial stigmatization as experienced by residents.

My current teaching responsibilities include BA courses Introduction to Human Geography and Introduction to Urban Geography, MA courses Advanced Urban Geographies and Qualitative Research Methods and individual thesis supervision for Bachelor, Master and Research Master students. I am also strategically engaged in our academic program as head of the Education Committee (OC) for our bachelor and master programs in Human Geography and Planning.

• Homepage of the department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies

• Homepage for the Center for Urban Studies

News

December 2017: new Dutch publication on territorial stigmatization

Colleagues Marijn Ferier and Myrte Hoekstra, former RMUS student Annefleur Noom and I publisehd a short paper in the Dutch journal Agora on resident experiences of territorial stigmatization in the Bijlmer and how they themselves experience this neighbourhood on the ground. Feel free to contact me for a copy of the paper.

August 2017: new publication on politics of place in a 'super-diverse' neighbourhood

Myrte Hoekstra and I wrote a paper on the way in which contestations between different groups of residents over a neighbourhood center in a highly diverse neighbourhood inform belonging and non-belonging. The paper can be found online as open access article in Social and Cultural Geography.

June 2017: seminar on local experiences of urban tourism

On June 23rd, I am organizing a seminar on local experiences of urban tourism in European cities, with presentations by Johannes Novy, Sebastien Jacquout and myself. See the website of the Center for Urban Studies for the detailed program.

April 2017: new publication on resident experiences of urban tourism

Together with colleague Willem Boterman, I recently conducted fieldwork in the Amsterdam canal district to explore how long term, middle-class residents experience the transformation of their neighbourhood into a place of leisure and consumption. The project reflects our shared interest in the changing urban landscape in our city and my personal interest in the ambivalent relationship between place change and belonging. The paper, titled When the spell is broken: gentrification, urban tourism and privileged discontent in the Amsterdam canal district, has been accepted for publication in Cultural Geographies. The article is available via open acces, see http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1474474017706176

February 2017: public lecture on mixed neighbourhoods

March 8 I will be giving a public lecture in Pakhuis de Zwijger on Mixed Neighbourhoods, see https://dezwijger.nl/programma/voordelen-van-gemengde-wijken for more info.

November 2016: seminar on Homing the Dutch

On November 4th, I will be discussant at a seminar on a special issue of Home Cultures: Homing the Dutch: Politics and Planning of Belonging. See for more information: http://aissr.uva.nl/events/current-events/current-events/content-6/folder-6/events/2016/11/homing-the-dutch.html

Spring 2016: sabbatical leave

I am on sabbatical leave until June and will spend this time in Vancouver, as visiting scholar at the Geography Department at the University of British Columbia (Canada).

Onderwijsactiviteiten / Teaching activities 2016 - 2017:

• Bachelor: Inleiding in de Sociale Geografie, Stadsgeografie, stedelijke dynamiek en stedelijk leven, bachelor thesis project Samenleven in de Stad
• Master Human Geography: Advanced Urban Geographies, Qualitative GeoSkills, individual thesis supervision
• Research Master Urban Studies: thesis supervision and apprenticeships
• Voorzitter Opleidingscommisie Bachelor Sociale Geografie en Planologie
• Coordinator of the Educational Programme Committee for the Master programs in Human Geography and Urban and Regional Planning

• Opleidingscommissie Geografie en Planologie

Scriptiebegeleiding

Ben je student en van plan binnenkort een individuele bachelor of masterscripie  te gaan schrijven op het gebied van stadsgeografie of op het snijvlak van stadsgeografie en planologie? Hieronder vind je een lijst met onderwerpen, waarbij ik je kan begeleiden. Enkele suggesties voor mogelijke scriptie-onderwerpen:

• gemengde wijken als plek van ontmoeting met in het bijzonder aandacht voor interacties tussen bewoners met verschillende sociale posities en wederzijdse beeldvorming
• verschillende vormen van buurtbinding
• domeinvorming in de stad en place-making 'van onderaf'
• upgrading en downgrading van buurten
• herstructuringsbeleid en gevolgen er van, o.a. effecten van menging inde buurt zelf, displacement en waterbedeffecten
• buurtreputaties en beeldvorming over plaatsen
• rol van buurten in verhuisgedrag
• betekenis van plaats voor sociaal kapitaal
• betekenis van plaats voor het zoeken en vinden van werk
• gebruik en beleving openbare ruimte in achterstandswijken
• opvoedpraktijken vanouders in arme wijken

Enkele voorbeelden van recente scripies (zie ook de lijst met Engelse scripties hieronder):

• Bachelorscriptieproject VINEX-mensen, in samenwerking met INTI (2015), o.a. scripties over place-making van onderaf, binding van allochtone bewoners, beeldvorming en territoriale stigmatisering over de VINEX, productie van Vathorst, ruimtelijk ontwerp en thuisvoelen.
• Barend Wind (2013) over het effect van de verkoop van huurwoningen op buurtkapitaal (MA SocGeo)
• Max Smit (2012) over Olympische dorpen vanuit een just city-perspectief (BA Plano)
• Bachelorscriptieproject Stedelijke vernieuwing in Bos en Lommer (2012)
• Robbin-Jan van Duijne (2011) Van geen wijken weten. Een onderzoek naar het beleid van een woningcorporatie ten aanzien van buurtverval in een nieuwe stad.

Thesis supervision

I regularly supervise master and research master students in the writing of their thesis. If you are considering approaching me for supervision, have a look at my research page to see the topics that would be of interest. 

Some examples of recent thesis supervision:

• Annefleur Noom (in progress) Resident experiences of territorial stigmatization in Amsterdam and Brussels (RMUS)
• Marijn Ferier (in progress) Belonging and use of space in migrant neighborhoods in NYC and Amsterdam (RMUS)
• Joris Zevenbergen (2015) Resisting commodification of the urban landscape in NYC and Amsterdam (RMUS)
• Karin de Nijs (2015) Commercial gentrification in  marginal urban neighbourhoods in Amsterdam and Vancouver (RMUS)
• Rick Stern (2014) From obsolete industrial urban space to a place beyond belief (MA Human Geography)
• Derk Harmannij (2014) Religion, postsecularism and social justice at the neigbourhood level (MA Human Geography)
• Veerle Veraart (2014) Residential considerations of pioneer gentrifiers in Amsterdam and Berlin (RMUS)
• Anouk Tersteeg (2013) Living together or apart? Resident experiences of social distances in new fine-grained mixed-tenure housing developments (RMUS)
• Pauline Albers (2012) Changing neighbourhood attachment in the process of urban regeneration.   (ResMA Urban Studies)
• Aram Limpens (2012)  Breaking down the wall. The role of physical barriers in everyday life (MA Plano)
• Charlotte van Kemmeren (2012) Between streets and bridges. Social capital of Turkish women in the Kolenkitbuurt of Amsterdam. (MA SocGeo) 

• Call for Papers AAG2016: Experiencing difference

Research interests

My research interests include a wide range of questions about the meaning of neighborhoods for residents, exploring how residents' everyday routines become embedded  in the neighborhood in which they live (or not!); how the neighborhood enables or limits their opportunities to improve their lives, and how - when neighborhood forms a meaningful place to residents - it is then acted upon. I have studied these questions in different types of neighborhoods (from low income neighborhoods to the Amsterdam canal belt) and for different groups of residents, using both qualitative and quantitative methods to provide insight in a variety of themes, including:

• attachment and belonging, focusing on the way in which people relate to the places in which they live, whereby I interpret these not as a given or fixed, but as a process which may change over time. In particular, I have recently become interested in how changes in the neighbourhood generated by processes at higher spatial scales - ranging from gentrification and urban governance to globalization and tourism - affect residents' relationship to place and how everyday experiences of neighbourhood change may undermine their sense of home and lead to expressions of discontent;
• everyday routines and the practice of everyday life, examining the ways in which residents' lives are embedded in the neighbourhood and the wider city, and how residents strategically manage their exposure to their environment;
• micro-politics of neighborhood life, questioning whether and how neighborhoods may function as informal territories for particular social groups (despite the fact that most urban neighborhoods are relatively heterogeneous in the Dutch context) and to what degree residents with different social positions are involved in processes of place-making, with an understanding that there may be substantial inequalities in the degree to which different meanings are acknowledged and accommodated in these processes;
• 'living with difference', investigating how residents in mixed neighborhoods and housing projects experience and respond to living in close proximity to 'others' and studying under which conditions social mix programs can contribute to positive experiences of diversity;
• the lived experience of urban marginality, including studying the processes that shape areas of concentrated poverty in cities and then how residents in highly deprived neighbourhoods experience, negotiate and cope with the marginalized context in which they live. This also includes research on processes of territorial stigmatization and the way in which residents of stigmatized urban areas themselves ascribe alternative meanings to their neighbourhood.

Recent research-related activities in progress

• Collaborating with colleague Richard Ronald on the Dutch case study of his ERC-project HOUWEL;
• Collaborating in the JPI Urban Eurpe project ICEC, in the role of supervisor of PhD-student Myrte Hoekstra;
• Wrapping up the fieldwork for research project on neighborhood attachment and territorial strategies of different resident groups in Betondorp, an old working class neighborhood in Amsterdam, building on Suttles' concept of defended neighborhoods;
• Developing a research project on supergentrification, diseyfication and experiences of home and belonging of early gentrifiers in the Amsterdam Canal Belt, together with colleague Willem Boterman;
• Working on a paper with PhD-student Myrte Hoekstra on the politics of place surrounding a neighborhood center in a disadvantaged but gentrifying neighborhood in Amsterdam.

PhD Supervision

- Annalies Teernstra (2009-2014) Processes of neighborhood upgrading and downgrading, copromotor

- Myrte Hoekstra (2013-) Governing diversity and experiencing difference, copromotor

- Doske van der Wilk (2014-) Gentrification of public space, daily supervisor

• Myrte Hoekstra

• Annalies' homepage

En verder...

• maak ik me regelmatig druk over het gebrek aan nuance in het publie debat over arme wijken en de misleidende en stigmatiserende labels die daarin gebruikt worden;
• en klim ik dan ook wel eens in de pen, zie bijvoorbeeld mijn reactie op het stuk Afrowijk in de Groene Amsterdammer (naar mijn mening het zoveelste voorbeeld was van Bijlmer bashing), mijn  kritische reactie op de term 'moslimwijken' in de Trouw en op de radio bij het programma CritiX  van FunX en een recent opiniestuk in het Parool met collega Wouter van Gent over onvrede van bewoners in Amsterdamse tuindorpen, mede op basis van mijn onderzoek in Betondorp.
• ben ik af en toe actief op twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/FenneGeo ;
• schreef ik onlangs een blog over toerisme op de Wallen (zie link hieronder)
• scoorde ik ooit een ikje bij de NRC;
• kom ik als werkende moeder altijd tijd tekort.

• Onvrede is breder dan Noord

• Urban Studies Blog on the red light district

• De moslimwijk bestaat helemaal niet

• Ingezonden brief naar De Groene over Afrowijk

• Ikje in de NRC

• No ancillary activities